Gold Coast Markets, Beach to Hinterland

The Gold Coast has a market on every day of the week. The farmers markets run early on Saturday, the beachfront market moves between three parks depending on which Sunday it is, the Surfers Paradise promenade fills three evenings a week, and up the range the mountain markets run once a month.

Two rules cover most of it. Be at a farmers market by eight, because they close before lunch. And on a Sunday, check which beach the beachfront market is at.

Saturday is for farmers markets

The southern end has the two that locals argue over. Burleigh Market trades every Saturday from 7am to noon, rain, hail or shine, with fruit and vegetables from several local farms plus meat, fish and deli food, and arts, crafts and antiques at the edges. Palm Beach Farmers Market has run since 2000 at Currumbin State High School, 6am to 11:30am, with more than 75 stallholders and the same operator the whole time. Reviewers say it is a touch smaller than Burleigh with fewer craft stalls and food just as good. It also has covered sections, which counts in a Gold Coast summer storm.

At the northern end, The Helensvale Farmers Market opens at 6am in the grounds of Helensvale State High School and is packed away by 11am. Produce comes first: fruit and vegetables, eggs, meat, seafood, honey and bread. Dogs are welcome. Turn up at half past ten and you will be watching the stalls come down.

Sunday, and the beachfront rotation

Three beachfront markets share one stallholder pool and one operator, and they take turns. Broadbeach Beachfront Markets has the parkland opposite Oasis and The Oracle on the first and third Sundays. Coolangatta Beachfront Markets runs along Queen Elizabeth Park on the second Sunday, plus the fourth in any month with five Sundays. Burleigh Heads Beachfront Markets takes Justins Park on the last Sunday, which in a five-Sunday month is the fifth, not the fourth. All three run 8am to 2pm with free entry and parking, sell handmade art, fashion and homewares, and allow dogs on a leash.

If you are working from an old listing, note the change of hands. Art and Craft on the Coast, which ran these markets for decades, closed in February 2026. Goodwill Projects took over all three from March under the name The Coastal Markets, on the same days and hours. Paradise Point Market on the Broadwater was not part of that and keeps its own fourth Sunday, 8am to 1pm.

Several markets run every Sunday whatever the beach is doing:

• Gold Coast Organic Farmers Market on the oval at Merrimac State High School, from 6am, sells only Certified Organic produce.

• Sunrise Farmers Market sets up in the Dreamworld Parkway car park at Coomera, 6am to 10:30am, with plenty of flat parking.

• HOTA Markets fills the lakeside parkland of the arts precinct at Surfers Paradise on Sunday morning, with four hours of free parking.

• Lavelle Street Markets in Nerang has 40-plus stalls from 6am to noon, with produce, breakfast and crafts.

• Tweed Heads Market just over the border runs 7am to 1pm, with car boot stalls and Tweed Valley produce, and it passes 100 stallholders on the first and third Sundays.

Then there is Carrara Markets, open Saturday and Sunday from 8am to 3pm since 1973. It has more than 400 stalls on 10 acres, plus mini golf, pony rides and a reptile stall with baby crocodiles. It is the Gold Coast's big family outing, and on a weekend it pulls crowds of up to 25,000, so arrive early for a park.

After dark

Surfers Paradise Beachfront Markets has run on the promenade since 1995, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 4pm to 9pm. It has more than 100 stalls of crafts, jewellery and art, with buskers and the Pacific a few metres away. It's aimed at people staying nearby, and it's at its best on a warm, still night. Wednesday is the quiet one.

Locals eat out at the suburban ones. Emerald Lakes Market runs along the lakeside Boulevard at Carrara every Thursday, 3pm to 7:30pm, and it is mostly food: produce, meat and seafood to take home and international dishes to eat there. Helensvale Street Eats & Beats turns the Helensvale Plaza car park into a street food market on Friday, 5pm to 9pm. Dreamworld Night Market runs Friday and Saturday evenings inside the theme park itself for a $2 entry, with a couple of rides kept running. Check its dates before you go.

Midweek, when the coast is quieter

Some of the best shopping is on a weekday. Evergreen Markets runs at Newlife Church in Robina on Wednesday from 6:30am to 11:30am, built as a grocery run: produce, sourdough, meat, seafood and flowers. Currumbin Community Markets moved to Goodwin Park in Coolangatta and trades on Thursday from 7am to 11am. It's a growers market run by two local mums, with no holiday crowd to queue behind.

Inland, Currumbin Valley Harvest is an organic growers market and cafe on Currumbin Creek Road, open Thursday to Monday from 8am to 2pm, where you can pick your own herbs and greens from the beds. Ferry Rd Market in Southport is a food hall rather than a market day, open daily, from the team behind James Street Markets in Brisbane.

Up the range, once a month

The hinterland markets are monthly, and the dates are what catch people. Tamborine Mountain has two in our directory on different Sundays. Tamborine Mountain Country Markets uses the showgrounds on the second Sunday, 7:30am to 1:30pm, with produce, plants and poffertjes. Tamborine Mountain State School Markets has more than 130 stalls on the last Sunday, 7am to 1pm, run by the school P&C since 1995. Pack a layer, because the mountain can be cool when the coast is warm.

Canungra Village Markets runs at Moriarty Park on the second Sunday, and listings disagree on its hours, so check its Facebook page that morning. Beechmont Country Markets is on the third Sunday, 8am to 1pm, at the Old School on the ridge, looking down the Numinbah Valley to the coast.

Two are rarer still. Gold Coast & Hinterland Artisan Market runs at the Mudgeeraba Showgrounds twice a year, once in autumn and once in spring, with makers demonstrating their craft. The Original Gold Coast Swap fills the same showgrounds with car parts and collectables from 6am on one Sunday a year.

Working out your weekend

Start from the Sunday. Look up which week of the month it is, and that tells you which beach has the market and which mountain market is on. Then add a Saturday farmers market at Burleigh or Palm Beach, and a weeknight on the Surfers promenade if you are staying nearby.

Every market here is in the Gold Coast markets directory with its next date, and markets this weekend shows what's on now. An hour north, Brisbane's markets start before sunrise.